Everybody Was So Young (66 page)

“a tendency to be”: Ibid., [2 Dec. 1934].

he still looked . . . records Gerald had sent: EH to
GCM
and
SWM
, 14 Dec. [1934], HMD; and home movie shot by Hemingway during that winter and sent to Patrick Murphy,
HMD
.

And the Hemingways’ new house . . . palm trees all around: John Hemingway interview; EH home movie,
HMD
.

“John was very dishonest . . . dirty sheets and everything”: Noel Murphy/
HMD
interview,
HMD
.

About the closest . . . Muriel Draper: There are four folders of correspondence between Esther and Muriel Draper in Draper’s papers at Yale’s Beinecke Library, some of it salaciously jokey, some of it warm and passionate.

[>] “[A]pparently . . . know what they’re doing”:
GCM
to
SWM
, 15 Feb. 193
⁵
,
HMD
. Gerald’s letter is actually dated 1934—an indication of how preoccupied he was.

“an actual relief . . . any such programmes”: Ibid.

“The leaning tower of Baoth”: S&G, p. 88.

“We are still behind”:
GCM
to
SWM
, 18 Feb. 1935,
HMD
.

[>] “ten days of hideous”: Esther Murphy to Muriel Draper, 17 Apr. 1935, Muriel Draper papers, Beinecke Library.

Significantly Hoytie . . . believe was a curse:
HMD
, Noel Murphy/
HMD
, and William MacLeish interviews.

[>] Archie could not stay . . . “she cried and cried”: This account is drawn from interviews with
HMD
, William MacLeish, and Hester Pickman (the last by
HMD
); HMD’s book, S&G and letters from Esther Murphy Strachey to Muriel Draper (17 Apr. 1935), AMacL to
JDP
and
KDP
([20 Mar. 1935] in Letters of Archibald MacLeish, p. 275); and the diaries of
REM
(entries for 14 and 17 Mar. 1935).

[>] “Darlings . . . dear to us all”:
KDP
to
SWM
and
GCM
, 18 Mar. 1935,
UVA
.

“You’ve been so brave . . . be brave”:
JDP
to
SWM
and
GCM
, 18 Mar. 1935,
HMD
.

“It is not so bad . . . be brave about”: EH to
SWM
and
GCM
, [19 Mar. 1935],
HMD
.

“courage &grace . . . mystery of pain”: AMacL to
GCM
and
SWM
, [29 Mar. 1935],
HMD
.

“fancy . . . one like that”: AMacL to
JDP
and
KDP
, [20 Mar. 1935], Letters of Archibald MacLeish, p. 275.

“
BAOTHS
ASHES
STAND”:
GCM
and
SWM
to
KDP
,
JDP
, EH, and PH, 21 Mar., 1935,
UVA
.

In the taxicab . . . cursing God: S&G, p. 91;
HMD
interviews.

“The news . . . Baoth and Patrick”: William MacLeish interview.

Alexander Woollcott . . . “feeling better”: S&G, p. 94.

[>] “The difficulty will be . . . visor on backwards”: EH to
PFM
II, 5 Apr. 1935,
HMD
.

Unlike many tuberculosis . . . disease and its treatment: Gallos, Cure Cottages of Saranac Lake, pp. 24–25.

[>] local radio station . . . “rest hour”: Ibid., p. 168.

classic Adirondack . . . enough to stand in: The description of the house, which burned down in 1967, came from interviews with Judge Jan Plumadore of Saranac Lake, whose family owned it in the 1960s. Other details are from personal observation.

“the Merchant Prince” . . . Saranac every other weekend:
SWM
to EH and PH, 11 Sept. 1935,
JFK
.

The Big Money . . . collapsed from the inside:
JDP
, The Big Money, p. 550.

“Sara very thin”:
JDP
to EH, [23 Jul. 1935], The Fourteenth Chronicle, p. 479.

[>] All his big canvases . . . “for all eternity”: FL to
GCM
and
SWM
, 27 Jul. 1935,
HMD
(my translation). To Simone Herman, Léger confided that the only way he could afford this career move was to live with the Murphys “for six months to a year.” (Léger, Lettres à Simone, p. 132, my translation.)

ten thousand viewers . . . twenty days: FL to
GCM
, undated,
HMD
.

Sara was able to get . . . “Pour Sara et Gérald”: S&G, p. 98; LW, p. 127.

Gerald was putting Léger up: Léger, Lettres à Simone, pp. 166–67.

“We’re both at the complete”: FL to
GCM
, undated [Saturday 16],
HMD
(my translation).

[>] “the price isn’t important”: Ibid., undated,
HMD
(my translation).

“We don’t buy pictures . . . all right”:
GCM
to
SWM
, 5 Feb. 1936,
HMD
.

Thus the Murphys acquired . . . grande feuille: The Murphys seem to have owned at least three Légers—this one, which was painted in 1927; Composition à un profil; and Accordion, which was painted in 1924 and dedicated to Sara at that time with an inscription on the back reading “à la bonne amitié.” Nature morte was sold in April 1989 by the dealer Guy Loudmer in Paris after having been in the possession of another owner; there is no definitive documentation that this was the painting taken in exchange for the gift of $1,, but the process of elimination suggests it. Gerald Murphy later said that he and Sara had given two other Légers to the Museum of Modern Art in 1931, but there is no record of these paintings in the Léger catalogue raisonné.

“thanks to you two . . . eternally grateful”: FL to
GCM
, 23 Jan. 1936,
HMD
(my translation).

He weighed only fifty-nine pounds:
SWM
to
FSF
, 3 Apr. 1935,
PUL
.

“on the mend”:
SWM
to EH and PH, 11 Sept. 1935,
JFK
.

“Dear Scott”:
GCM
to
FSF
, 11 Aug. 1935,
PUL
.

[>] “Dearest Sara”:
FSF
to
SWM
, 15 Aug. 1935,
HMD
.

20. “Life itself has stepped in now”

[>] “raw to the feelings . . . lot of good”:
SWM
to
FSF
, 20 Aug. [1935],
PUL
.

“very unhappy”: AMacL to EH, [14 Oct. 1936], JFK; Letters of Archibald MacLeish, pp. 284–85.

“My Dearest Scott”:
SWM
to
FSF
, 20 Aug. 1935,
PUL
.

“My Dearest Hemingways”:
SWM
to PH and EH, 11 Sept. 1935,
JFK
.

[>] “My Dearest Pauline”:
SWM
to PH, 18 Sept. [1935],
JFK
.

“My dearest Ernest”:
SWM
to EH, 18 Sept. [1935],
JFK
.

[>] “even though I knew . . . nobody coming”: EH to
JDP
, 17 Dec. 1935; Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, pp. 425–26.

“a crush”: James Mellow interview.

“maybe I am bad luck”: EH to
SWM
, 12 Sept. 1935,
HMD
.

[>] “It isn’t true”:
SWM
to EH, 18 Sept. [1935],
JFK
.

“Only place . . . sleep alone”: EH to
SWM
, 8 Dec. [1935],
HMD
.

By the winter . . . relationship had cooled: Mellow, Emest Hemingway, pp. 462–63.

“With very much love”: EH to
SWM
, 8 Dec. [1935],
HMD
.

Gerald did his part . . . shape of a bell: ‘“Town Crier’ Scoops the City!” advertisement in GCM/Alexander Woollcott file, HU.

[>] “You show signs . . . strange gentlemen?”:
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, [summer 1939], HU.

“gift . . . valuable”:
GCM
to AMacL, 8 Feb. 1943,
LOC
.

lofty barn . . . four different churches: Description of house and location from personal on-site observation.

Dick and Alice Lee . . . Lake Placid in February:
REM
diary: Feb. 1936.

Honoria remembers her mother . . . doesn’t try to guess:
HMD
interview.

[>] “Of all our friends”:
GCM
to
FSF
, 31 Dec. 1935,
PUL
.

“Damn I wish . . . you were here, Sara”: EH to
SWM
, 11 Feb. 1936,
HMD
.

“Poor Sara” . . . mutual friend: Ibid., [27 Feb. 1936].

[>] “There is one . . . emotional pressure”:
GCM
to
SWM
, 16 Apr. 1936,
HMD
.

“Dear Sal . . . nothing much”: Ibid., 18 Apr. 1936.

[>] “active love”:
TITN
, p. 75.

“Thank God”: Gill, A New York Life, p. 324.

“deficiency . . . rotten”:
GCM
to
SWM
, 18 Apr. 1936,
HMD
.

After an inauspicious . . . bonito within two days: EH Notebooks 1936: 4–10 May,
JFK
.

“whining in public”: EH to Maxwell Perkins, 7 Feb. 1936; Emest Hemingway: Selected Letters, pp. 437–38.

“Do you really . . . all I know”:
SWM
to
FSF
, 3 Apr. [1936],
PUL
.

[>] One day . . . secluded cove: EH to
SWM
, 13 Jun. [1939],
HMD
.

And sometime during . . . their lives:
SWM
to EH, 20 May 1936,
JFK
.

“Some people . . . can’t imagine it”: John Hemingway interview.

“like a delicious”:
SWM
to EH, 20 May 1936,
JFK
.

“beautiful . . . turned out to be me”: PH to
GCM
, 17 Jul. [1935],
HMD
.

“About being snooty . . . yourself and Pauline”:
SWM
to EH, 20 May [1936],
JFK
.

[>] Now, in a story . . . “Kilimanjaro”: EH to Maxwell Perkins, 9 Apr. 1936, Emest Hemingway: Selected Letters, pp. 442–44. Hemingway’s biographer Michael Reynolds believes “Snows” was completed in April, but this letter to Perkins indicates it was still a work in progress at this point.

Although Hemingway had berated . . . kept in his files: Reynolds, Hemingway: The 1930s, p. 324.

[>] it was Sara Murphy . . . sent it to her:
HMD
is unsure of who found the picture, but thinks it might have been Hemingway. As related by Carlos Baker in Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story (pp. 258–59 and 66 n), Hemingway later said that “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” had been inspired by an unnamed rich woman who, after his return from his 1934 African safari, had offered to stake him to a return trip. He didn’t take her up on the offer; “Snows,” he implied, is the story of what might have happened if he had done so.

“Every woman’s husband . . . Mrs. Parker’s confidante”: EH to AMacL, [undated],
LOC
. There is no date on this letter, nor has a postmarked envelope survived. Although Michael Reynolds, in Hemingway: The 1930s, confidently assigns it a July 23, 1933, date, this is by no means certain. References to Jane Mason’s back injury indicate only that the letter was written during or after the summer of 1933. Although most of this letter concerns Jane Mason, there’s no evidence that she was “Mrs. Parker’s confidante” or that she or her husband knew “Mr. Benchley.”

“terribly, terribly sorry”:
GCM
to
SWM
, 26 Jun. 1936,
HMD
.

Camp Adeline . . . main living quarters: Patrick Murphy diary: 11 Jul. 1936,
HMD
.

filled with bright . . . plants and flowers:
GCM
to
FSF
, 30 Jul. 1936,
PUL
.

[>] “like his old self’:
REM
to
ALM
, 8 Aug. 1936,
FMB
.

One after-supper musicale . . . fandango:
FMB
interview.

“a black and chromium . . . junketing”:
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, 25 May 1936, HU.

Back at Camp Adeline . . . away in the Adirondacks:
SWM
to EH and PH, 29 Jul. [1936],
JFK
.

[>] series of projects . . . engaged his imagination now:
GCM
art notebook,
HMD
.

[>] “Honoria, I think you”:
HMD
interview; S(5G, p. 111.

“it is still a very doubtful”:
REM
to
ALM
, 13 Aug. 1936,
FMB
.

“everyone remarks on”:
GCM
to
FSF
, [ca. Aug. 1936],
PUL
.

“[s]he refuses to release”: Ibid., 30 Jul. 1936.

“I want new clothes”:
SWM
to EH and PH, 29 Jul. [1936],
JFK
.

[>] The previous summer . . . change the fuse: Gallos, Cure Cottages of Saranac Lake, p. 125.

Murphys were paying . . . tuition and board:
FMB
interview.

[>] “I spend three . . . doctors are uneasy”:
GCM
to Bernardine Fritz-Szold, 12 Dec. 1936, Beinecke Library.

“Patrick is an adult . . . great deal”:
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, [ca. Nov. 1936], HU.

“Patrick is no more”: Alexander Woollcott to
GCM
, 20 Nov. 1936, HU.

“pretty horrible . . . heartbreaking”:
JDP
to EH, 9 Jan. [1936], The Fourteenth Chronicle, p. 504.

“Jan 1” . . . snow with Gerald :
PFM
II diary: 23 and 24 Jan. 1937,
HMD
. Alice Lee ran interference . . . cajole him into eating:
REM
to
ALM
, 19 Jan. [1937],
FMB
.

Patrick had to have . . . wobbly scrawl:
PFM
II diary 1937,
HMD
.